Monday, June 06, 2011

We visited Beting Bronok last month, but didn't quite had the time to blog about it until today! Not sure if it's a seasonal thing or what, but we did not see any Melo melo despite the very low tide. Checked with the TMSI team there, and apparently they had not seen one for a while also. We saw several shells though. Anyway, here are some of the things we saw...

Nepanthia belcheri, a sea star which I have not seen for a while...

The Goniodiscaster scaber were every where!

There were many small Anthenea aspera, but I was glad to see a few of these big ones - more than 20cm wide.

I only saw one Astropecten sp.

Two Protoreaster nodosus were seen.

The Salmacis sea urchins were in season.

Only a few Temnopleurus sp. were seen though.

Holothuria scabra, a rather common sea cucumber in our local shores which is also a good burrower.

Prionocidaris sp. - always rather abundant here.

An unknown nudibranch which I was too lazy too look up for its ID.

This nudibranch looks like a Hoplodoris armata to me.

Dendrodoris denisoni - one of the more commonly seen nudibranchs on our shores.

Notobryon sp. - have only seen this at Changi before this.

Found this Actinocyclus sp. laying eggs! Unfortunately it was caught by the low tide though.

Another nudibranch which I have not seen for quite a while - Thordisa villosa.

Bursatella leachii appeared to be in season too.

Several small octopuses were stranded high and dry with the low tide.

I also saw some cuttlefish eggs, but did not see any cuttlefish though.

My first time seeing this brownish flatworm here, though I had previously seen it on our other shores.

Pseudoceros indicus - quite common but often overlooked as it's rather small.

An unidentified sea anemone which had two different types of tentacles - yellow ones in the middle, which the rest were dull coloured.

Stichodactyla hadonni - a rather common sea anemone on our shores.

Not so common was this Actinostephanus haeckeli, which supposedly stings painfully.

Dendronephthya spp. were quite abundant on our northen shores.

Chrysaora sp. was also in season. Haven't heard of any divers who got stung by it this time round though.

Varuna litterata?

Bryozoans were every where!

Several moray eels and sharks were caught in this fish trap. Sigh... the TMSI people had problems with the fishermen before, so we didn't free them.